I am always looking to deepen my interest in magic. And learn new things.

I am 33 and have a massive library of books and magazines.

However - no matter how well read you are - there is a large chunk of magic that passes you by.

Marketed tricks.

I find this a really difficult area to study. And since I love great magic - nothing saddens me more than the idea I would overlook a trick I might fall in love with.

As such - I want to start a thread where we can point out interested marketed effects that others may have overlooked. Happily - we can leave out Tenyo tricks since Richard Kaufman has documented this area so well in his new book.

Here are some marketed tricks from the past that have caught my eye.

First is the Eddie Joseph trick (called 'Shattering Coins') I started a thread on recently:

Also - I am a fan of 'Bewildering Rings' and 'The Straw Through The Card' by Petrick and Mia.

Here is what Dai Vernon said about 'Bewildering Rings':

"Petrick's bracelets and string effect is truly amazing, most entertaining and delightfully visual. Hard to believe everything can be examined before and after. Nothing added or taken away. One of the very finest routines I have come across in years."

As for the 'Straw Through The Card' trick - I find it interesting that it is a reinvention of an ingenious Karl German idea. But applied to a close-up effect.

'Ring of Fire' by Bob Swadling is another trick that interests me. You can see it (briefly) at the beginning of this trailer:

Hopefully others will find this topic of interest? A lot of the best ideas in magic were released as standalone effects and not put into print.

As such - you are often left to word of mouth when it comes to working out which tricks from the past are worth saving from obscurity. The input from more experienced magicians is invaluable in this area.

Last edited by Joe Mckay on February 10th, 2016, 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

if you are interested in marketed items that are a little larger in size, you mignt wish to find a set of Albo books. great tricks, lovely pictures. Will expose you to amazing things that you may not know even exist.

I found one of my Abra ads from about 45 years ago. I shall reveal the truth of the matter in my next post though. Anyway here it is:

ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THIS WORLDThe miracle improvement to Paul Curry’s classic effect. NO STOPPING HALFWAY THROUGH DEAL. Spectator deals pack into two face-down piles; when cards are turned over, one side is all red, the other side all black. The secret is a trick pack, but what a trick pack! Can be thoroughly examined. You can even play a game of cards with them. As purchased by Robert Harbin, Silvan, etc. MARKETING RIGHTS EXCLUSIVELY HELD BY MARK LEWIS STUDIO. £ 1 post free in U.K. $4 airmail to U.S. Other countries please send enough to cover postage.

ALSO:--CUPS and COLOURSAs performed by Mark Lewis all over the country. One of the greatest close-up tricks ever invented. Beautifully made multi-coloured cups specially imported from Holland and assembled at our factory. Price 50 pence post free in U.K. Airmail to U.S. $2

THE VANISHING ROYALThis is the finest Three Card Monte in existence. The standard effect but superior to anything you have ever seen. Made to rigorous specifications at our factory on the premises. NOT FOR SALE. This item is FREE to any customer who makes a purchase exceeding £1. This offer is open to callers only.

FINALLY:--We will shortly be announcing the opening of the Mark Lewis Magic Theatre. A regular weekly evening of close-up magic by one of the world’s finest card magicians. WATCH OUT FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

OK. Here is the truth behind the above ad. Incidentally all the above tricks had been advertised individually for weeks beforehand and I sold a ton of them with the most blatant misrepresenation which I am very proud of.

By way of explanation "Absolutely Out of This World" was a svengali deck with the reds cut short and the blacks left as they were. If you flick half the deck one way they are all black and the other way all red. That was how it worked. I invented it and it was the biggest load of bilge I ever came up with. I sold loads and loads though! Robert Harbin and Silvan spent money on it, as I remember. They must have been gravely disappointed in their purchase!

And to my great delight I have just found one left over from 45 years ago. Amazingly it is as good as new although the box is naturally a little bedraggled. It is new because I never used it and was never sold.

The Cups and Colours trick was simply the little plastic cups and balls. I disguised the title and description so the idiot magicians wouldn't realise what it was. Ali Bongo was daft enough to buy one which was ironic because he was the one who first sold it to me when he worked in a magic shop. I was a teenager at the time.

The cups were egg cups and were indeed made in Holland but I purchased them from the local grocery store. My "factory" was a table in my office.

As was the Vanishing Royal which of course is the Dutch Looper. I used to make 14 out of one regular deck. I would make all 14 in about ten minutes. It was indeed "made to rigorous specifications at our factory on the premises" . I just had to make sure I cut them properly and put the glue on correctly.

As for the Mark Lewis Magic Theatre that was just a room in my office premises. I only got one punter come in. He was an old man with nothing much to do in Blackpool. And of course I shall let you guess who "one of the world's finest card magicians" was!

During the Genii cataloging a few years ago I was assigned the 80s, so I had to read through every issue from that decade.

One thing that helped to pass the time was looking at the ads for the hot tricks of the day; if you want to get a feel for what was around back then, it's a good place to start, and you can cross reference with the product reviews (although they were a tad less detailed back in those days...

You probably did buy some of mine. Some of my advertising copy was very good. Most dealers never got much in the way of results from Abra. I did very well though because I tried to make the ads amusing and naturally full of self aggrandizement.

Mind you, I did occasionally sell something of quality although it wasn't a particular priority for me. I remember Silvan was my best customer but then other dealers told me that he used to buy a ton of stuff from them too.

What always used to amuse me was that the top magicians had the most awful letterheadings, business cards and promotional material that they would occasionally send in with their orders. Really cheap quality. Yet the struggling magicians and semi pros would send me top quality art paper colour brochures and high quality business cards and notepaper.

One thing I did right though. I was even slightly paranoic about it. I would send the order instantly and was actually quite conscientious about it. I never wanted to get into the difficulties which seem to be incredibly prevalent even today with people ordering stuff from quite noted names in magic and the stuff not showing up. And then of course the vendor avoids all his disgruntled customers and is never to be found. That is fatal. When customers can't get hold of you they get very nervous and start raising hell.

I always made sure they got their merchandise even if the stuff I sent was crap which of course it often was. I actually have a little of it left from years ago!

Philippe Billot wrote:"Another is 'Impossible Penetration'. Although I am not sure who to credit for this trick?"

There is an Ad for this trick in The Linking Ring, Vol. 67, no 1, January 1987, page 6. It's credited to Clarence Miller

There was a detailed article about the creation of this item in one of the trades recently (I'll try to find it when I get home). It was also offered for sale by Collectors Workshop/Viking Magic at one time.

And thanks too for mentioning the Albo books earlier. Although as you said - it is not quite what I am looking for.

This is an area that really interests me. It would be great to see a 'Tenyoism' type book one day that archived the best of the creative ideas to be found in marketed effects. It is strange to think that there is a wile other corridor to magic that I have never been down before.

Perhaps a blog/forum would be a good venue for this sort of thing? I may look into that one day. Although I just found this site and it looks promising:

can you clarify the types of things you are interested in? I am unclear where the line between some of the items you have mentioned and some other pieces of apparatus may be. Is it a limitation to closeup items? Would gerlitz, Warner and anverdi be in that group? if so there may be an article coming out very soon that might interest you.

Basically - I have read every book and magazine there is to read in magic.

Okay - that is a wild exaggeration. But it certainly feels that way. Particularly when I think about the endless hours I have spent making use of the Ask Alexander site.

And on top of that - I am bored of card tricks. Have being for a few years now.

However - I am not a magic collector. I don't really care about pretty props. I just want to uncover some cool tricks that have never been published in books before. The Eddie Joseph trick earlier was a great example of that.

So I am looking for creative close-up magic. That does not use cards. Happily - this accounts for a lot of the magic tricks that have been marketed over the past century.

That said - it feels like I have little more to go on than word of mouth and luck when trying to uncover the best ones.

I also think a lot of magicians are in the same boat as me. They would be delighted to hear about marketed tricks that are novel or ingenious - but have been long forgotten about.

It would make a nice column in GENII! David Britland would be perfect for this.

Never thought about about the Thayer books. Thanks, Matt! Looks really interesting.

Also - I have some stuff by UF Grant. His work on magnets and his booklet on 'Windowstoppers' (this is a really interesting little booklet). In that booklet I was in a daze for a day or two thinking how incredible that mermaid effect (at the end of the booklet) must have been when it was used as a publicity gimmick 70 years ago.

That said - I am not sure where to look next as regards UF Grant?

Thanks for all the feedback guys! And I will look out for your upcoming project, Quentin. I don't know much about Children's magic. Although - I know Walt Less was a Children's magician and he was a clever creator of close-up magic.

there was a large (ish) UF grant DVD project released a few years ago. I enjoyed it a lot. Grant pioneered the modern lecture circuit - without ever leaving his house. He would send a movie of his lecture to a club along with notes to sell. They would mail it to the nextclub and so on and so forth

I have a few days off work, and have been looking through some Geniis from the 80s. Some of the old ads are fascinating; and it is interesting to see which tricks lasted...

That Impossible Penetration trick I still have; I bought it off George Schindler. I still remember his patter line; he would hold the chopper up, and say "If you look through the hole, can you see a star? Well, that's enough about me..." A funny line, and great cover for the move.

I also remember the fuss that the ads for Ben Harris's Cosmosis caused. While, as so often with Ben, the advertising over-promised, the trick lives on...although at a lot lower price. However - I do deplore that it is so often now sold as a generic trick, without credit (or money) being given to Ben, for what is a clever idea.

Well, since I'm here; I have a long term puzzle. when I was a kid - so we are back to the seventies - someone bought me a card trick. (Maybe from Davenports, or Ellisdons - I'm in the UK). What I remember is that (at least) one of the cards had a 'star trap' cut in it. So, I'm guessing the trick was some sort of penetration. Does this ring any bells?

Terri Rogers' Blockbuster and the Anverdi trick with a pin are very different.

I had an Enchanted Ring and there's a wooden block with a slot. You slide the bracelet in the slot and lock it in place with a pin running across. This bracelet passes through the pin and everything can be examined.

In Blockbuster there's a block with a slot, which has a piece of ribbon running through from side to side. You lower the bracelet in the slot and pull it up, with the ribbon running through it. The block can not be examined

I had the Enchanted Ring when I was 15 and it worked very reliably and was a pretty good fooler, other than the fact that the whole thing was obviously a piece of magician's apparatus. You hold the bracelet, with the block dangling from it, and lower it onto a spectator's hand. You lift the bracelet and it comes free; you can hang it on the person's thumb and leave everything in their hands.

I've never held a blockbuster but I've seen the method in Rogers' book. It's amazing. But apparently most of the actual ones were very balky in operation.

Hey Pete - remember the Afghan Race puzzle thing in 'Top Secrets'? That trick fooled me for a few years until I figured out the simple secret. Every few months I would go over the puzzle and fool myself.

Six coins stacked to the center of the table on a small round glass plate. Six cards placed around the center. The coins care covered by a small cylinder. A bit of flash paper is dropped in. The flash paper is lit. The cylinder is empty! The coins are under the cards. Worth a look.

Do you know the name of the trick? Does anyone else? Is Al Schneider's site still working?

I'm not sure i would agree with the assessment of how "rare" those arcade machines are - i think i've seen one in every old-time-arcade i've been in to and whilst i don't have precise pricing info similar age / style machines sell for <$1000 over here regularly so estimating these at $6k plus feels optimistic.

The coin vanish is very effectiveThe rope cutting is mechanically interesting but not hugely deceptive.The magic spiral (not built until 40years after the others) is just plain odd- i had to watch it a couple of times before i could even see the magic and even then the method was instantly obvious; unlike the other two machines there really is no mechanism or clever engineering in it.

Bobby Bernard has some great tricks published in The Pentagram magazine. One of them is a variation of the trick above.

Recently I have become interested in Lu Brent. So I am looking into his work. As part of that research I came across an interesting marketed effect by him called 'Water-Lu'. Here is a discussion about the effect from The Magic Cafe:

I’ve been performing “Water-Lu” (hydrostatic metal can) with the prop looking like an “Old El Paso Hot Chili Pepper’s” can (taped a label on it!). I pair it with the Chin Lee Water suspension and with a Styrofoam pencil thru cup bit for a multi phase routine. It is a solid routine!

Harry - question about "Water-Lu" ... I've seen it advertised in the old Abbott's catalogs , but never seen it performed. It's the Hydrostatic Glass effect , but is the method the same ? I always thought "foo can" principle , but haven't ever actually seen one.

It’s not a Foo can or really a hydrostatic glass. It uses a kind of hydrostatic glass principle but the cover never comes off. It drifts from the bottom to the top and back again. It is totally self-contained. Pour water into it until it is full to over flowing. Put a playing card over the mouth of the can, turn the thing upside down (typical hydrostatic handling so far), and peel the card away. Put the card back and turn the can up right again and pour the water out. Nothing to dislodge. The amount of fluid is the exact volume of the can. Lu Brent was a genius when he invented this little treasure.